Category: Theatre

So I finally got to go and see CATS earlier this month, on Sat 14th November with my mum, sister, aunt and cousin. I have to admit that I didn’t know very much about the musical or the storyline prior to attending.

In terms of the plot what I gathered was that the main premise of the plot seemed to be the Jellicle Cats; a tribe of cats, are all getting together for this one night, the night of the Jellicle Ball, where their leader chooses a a member of the tribe to move on to a higher place and be reborn (I couldn’t figure out if this was heaven or not!) and along the way we as the audience meet many different Cats and there are hi-jinks and dancing all round.

Firstly, the set design and the costumes were stunning. It really was a great visual feast, even for those of us sitting up in the rafter seats (we were on the back back row!), so this was great and really set the scene.

The music, the athleticism, the singing and dancing were all top notch; and Beverley Knight was as ever stunning as Grisabella singing the really famous song ‘Memory’. But all the cast were equally good, I really enjoyed listening to all of the songs and watching the routines. It was definitely a fun performance and you could see the cast were enjoying themselves, which makes you as an audience enjoy it more.

I enjoyed many elements of the musical overall, but I think, like the rest of my family that while we enjoyed it we didn’t really understand it. It was great to watch and I enjoyed but I can’t say that I was emotionally invested in any of the characters, they were all so fleetingly introduced and explained to us. It’s so energetic, so quick that I found it very hard to keep up and switch with the characters making it hard for me to totally immerse and I think this is the problem the rest of my family had also. It’s fine without minimal dialogue but sometimes when you cant keep up with the song, or in some cases fully understand the lyrics in relation to the action it makes it hard to really engage,

FINAL VERDICT: While I enjoyed it I am not sure that I would rush out to go see it again personally. I am glad that I have seen it, it’s definitely an experience but I think I can happily not repeat it.

I realise some people love this Musical, but it wasn’t 100% my cup of tea. What do other people think? Have they seen the production in London?